OECD sees growing eurozone jobs crisis

By
Euronews

More grim jobs news with unemployment in the world’s advanced economies set to remain high for the next year and a half.

Young people and the low-skilled will suffer most according to the latest outlook from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The jobless rate in the 34 countries covered by the OECD will fall slightly but will still be at 7.7 percent at the end of next year, close to this May’s 7.9 percent rate and leaving 48 million people out of work.

The eurozone will likely see a rise from 10 percent of the workforce last year to 10.8 percent this year and 11 percent in 2013.

Ángel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD said there is another worrying trend: “Unemployment now is different because it is lasting longer. People are out of work for over six months, in many cases more than a year. These are challenges we’ve never faced before. There is a risk that these people won’t get back into the job market.”

Gurría added: “It is imperative that governments use every possible means at their disposal to help jobseekers, especially young people, by removing barriers to job creation and investing in their education and skills.”

The OECD points out that with workers increasingly being replaced by machines for many routine tasks, a drop in low-skilled jobs is a permanent, structural phenomenon that will not be reversed when growth resumes.

To counter that it calls for further investment in education and training to equip workers to win the “race against the machine”.